O Lord, I am deeply grateful for Your wonderful acts, for Your abundant promises, and for the gift of my relationship with You through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ.
We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. Revelation 11:17
Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to You. You change the times and the seasons; You raise up kings and depose them. You give wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. You reveal deep and hidden things; You know what is in the darkness, And light dwells with You. Daniel 2:20-22
Take a moment to express your gratitude for the many blessings that you have received from the Lord.
You are the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. You live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15
Blessed be the Lord; day by day He bears our burdens, the God of our salvation. Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord belongs escape from death. Psalm 68:19-20
Lord, I thank You for reviving the spirit of the lowly and for raising Your Son from the dead. I thank You for bearing my burdens, and I ask that I would seek to serve Christ by loving others.
God, I want Your Word to be deeply implanted in me so that I not only know the truth, but also express it in the way I live.
The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. Numbers 18:20
The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, And He will delight in his way; Though he stumbles, he will not be cast down, For the Lord upholds him with His hand. Psalm 37:23-24
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the furthest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,” even the night will be light around me. The darkness is not dark to You, and the night shines as the day; darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12
God lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:2-3
My love must be sincere. I will hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to affirm the truth of these words from Scripture and ask God to make them a growing reality in your life.
Lord, I thank You that You are always with me and that You sent Your Son to give me the gift of eternal life. I thank You for putting a new song in my mouth, and I ask that I would cast off the works of darkness and cling to what is good.
God will keep me strong to the end, so that I will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom I was called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9
I should let my gentleness be evident to all men; the Lord is near. Philippians 4:5
Let my love be sincere. May I hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to share your personal needs with God, including your physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual concerns.
Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for the certainty of Your promises and for the wisdom of Your ways. I thank You for keeping me strong to the end, and I ask that I would be a gentle and loving soul.
“May I meditate on Your precepts And consider Your ways. May I delight in Your statutes, And not forget Your word. Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes that I may see Wonderful things from Your law.” Psalm 119:15-18
Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for Your power and for Your patience and compassion. I thank You that I have been loved by You, and I ask that I would walk in the way of love for You and for others.
Take a moment to offer this day to the Lord and ask Him for the grace to grow in your knowledge and love for Him.
“Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, and Your thoughts toward us no one can recount to You; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.” Psalm 40:5
“Direct my footsteps according to Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”Psalm 119:133
Lord, I thank You for Your beloved Son and for Your unfailing love. I thank You for Your wonderful thoughts, and I ask that I would follow Your word and walk in purity of heart.
Take a moment today to focus your mind and heart on Jesus. Give thanks for His selfless love today and for the days to come in 2024.
Love this story! I pray that you are as inspired as I was by her no quit spirit!
FLORET
“Sometimes I am trying to get to sleep, and I begin to think about the war, about the explosions, about this possibility that any time my dearest persons can be killed. I say to myself, do not think about that. Think about flowers,” says Alla Olkhovska.
Alla is a gardener, an expert in finicky clematis, a photographer, a writer, and a caretaker. She lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the eastern border. On the morning that the war started, she could hear the explosions and gunfire. Munitions and debris have landed just yards away from her grandmother’s home. Air alerts scream day and night and it’s common to lose electricity and gas.
Yet, every day Alla boards a public bus that drops her near her family’s garden, which her great-grandfather planted as a small apple orchard after World War II to help her struggling ancestors survive. There are still a few apple trees left, but now the garden is home to a collection of rare and stunning flowers.
And, it remains a means of survival.
While the garden is a refuge for Alla, a sanctuary she maintains despite the war, it’s also a critical lifeline for her family. She is there to collect as many seeds as she can. By selling them, Alla cares for her elderly grandmother, her mother-in-law, and her husband, who nearly lost his life to Covid-19 and has not fully regained his health.
Even as the harsh winter creeps ever closer, Alla is undeterred. With relentless optimism and a belief in the power of beauty and goodness, Alla fights for the survival of her family one seed at a time.
In addition to this short documentary film, you can read a full written interview with Alla here.
If you’d like to support Alla and her family, here’s how:
Order seeds
Alla sells seeds for clematis, peonies, phlox, and rare plants and ships worldwide. To place an order, visit her online catalogs. Please note: These are not traditional online shops.
To order seeds for clematis and other rare plants, click here.
Ordering instructions: To place an order, click on each item you’re interested in to add it to your cart, where you can adjust the quantity if needed. The minimum order amount is €33 EUR, (approximately $36 USD), plus shipping. You will not be able to check out until you’ve reached the order minimum.
When you’re ready to check out, click on the shopping bag icon to enter your name, email address, and phone number in the cart pop-up. Once your contact information has been entered, click on the black button “Оформить заказ” to submit your order. Please be patient while Alla checks your wish list/order against her seed inventory. She will send you an order confirmation and an invoice that you can pay via PayPal.
Purchase a copy of Alla’s book
If you want to learn all about clematis, Alla wrote a wonderful e-book all about them. This 124-page book includes her beautiful photography, growing advice based on her personal experience, plus her favorite varieties (organized by bloom time), and instructions on how to propagate clematis through cuttings and layering, and from seed.
The cost of the book is €24 EUR, equivalent to about $25 USD. If you would like a hard copy, you can send the book file to your local office supply store to have it printed and bound.
To purchase Alla’s e-book, Clematis, click here. After selecting the number of e-books that you would like to order, you will be prompted to enter your contact information in the box below. Once you’ve entered your contact information, click the black button to submit your order. You will receive an email from Alla with instructions to complete your order and how to pay via PayPal.
Make a donation
If you’re not interested in seeds or a book and would like another way to help, you can simply send money. The exchange rate is very much in Alla’s favor, and what might seem like a small amount will go a long way for her and her family.
Funds can be sent via PayPal to standwithkharkiv@gmail.com. All donations go directly to Alla, and if you enter HUMANITARIAN AID into the “What’s this payment for” field, fees and taxes will be waived.
Subscribe to Patreon
Alla just started a Patreon account with three monthly subscription levels: snowdrop ($5 USD/month) clematis ($10 USD/month), and peony ($25 USD/month). These subscriptions will allow Alla to continue her seed-saving efforts and will support her family during the upcoming winter months. For more information, click here.
Follow Alla on social media
Alla has a wonderful Instagram account where she shares beautiful pictures from the garden, interesting videos of her work, and updates from Ukraine. She also has a Facebook page that you can follow and a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to. Be sure to leave her a comment and some encouraging words.
Simple Life Heartenings 
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